As in most if not all RPG, the initial choice of race affects ability stats. After that, abilities and skills are both developed by expending XP as it is acquired. Ability boosts cost more than skill boosts. Skills are ability-dependent; you cannot advance beyond a certain level in a skill without advancing the underlying ability first. Then you can add more skill points. There are no hard boundaries to ability/skill development (although there is a maximum to each), no typical "levels" that require a minimum of XP to do a major level up. You can spend XP credits when you get enough to buy a skill/ability point or save them up for major changes. You can also reset all your points if you feel your character has gone in totally the wrong direction, and start over at a certain cost of XP value.

The player can develop the henchman's skills and abilities, except for the crafting skills which are for the PC alone, and thus manipulate the whole party.

Combat in a nutshell

Combat is turn based and gives you a wide range of tactical choices

The player has a choice of fighting methods. There is the usual martial way, using weapons. He could also attack using Arcane Magic, Music, Psi, or Divine powers. Proficiency in any of these methods depends on skill and ability levels. All the methods require equipping an item, for instance a weapon for the martial attacks or a musical instrument for music attacks.

In a particular round, the participants (including enemies) have the option of switching fighting method, if the character has one rank of the associated skill, and costs Action Points (AP). Action Points are based on your stats and define what you can do in a particular combat round.

In any round, the combatant can choose an offensive or defensive action. Both of these combat options have increasing effect at increasing skill levels.

Skill level raises area effectiveness, damage output & duration

Actions like attack, spell casting etc. have critical results. The higher your skill is, the higher the critical chance becomes. You can individually boost these critical chances using buffs or inventory items.

On critical debuff result, the effect is put on multiple enemies and/or the effect lasts longer

Besides the previous options, the player has Tactical options too, such as:

Tactical Trait:these points are based on Combat Tactics skill and they work on team level. Using them, the party member can either buff the entire player party or debuff the entire enemy party. The action consumes Tactical Trait Points. This special trait is acquired by the PC when he's created. Each companion also has one of these traits:

BEFUDDLER (Generates random threat signal to the enemy so their attack is uncoordinated)

REFRESHER (Faster tactical pool regeneration)

CHILLER (All enemy attributes drop by 1 briefly)

CHEERLEADER (Team attacks with +1 attributes briefly)

ROADBLOCK (Enemy slowed, losing Action Points)

WHIP (Team acts faster, gaining bonus Action Points)

STUPEFIER (Enemy stops fighting, does nothing)

JOLTER (Regeneration for a short time)

COORDINATOR (Team attacks with +1 skill briefly)

WET BLANKET (Enemy attacks with -1 skill)

Heal: Magically heals a party member, using mana

Annoy: Generates threat, so the enemy pays more attention to the user

Befriend: Mitigates threat, so the enemy pays less attention to the user

Access Inventory: at the cost of AP, you can access your characters' inventory

Pick up loot: the User accesses an ECME loot bag (Eupherean Company that Manufactures Everything) that was dropped by the enemy

There is an AI which will manage combat automatically, but the effectiveness will still depend on the character’s Bravery, Intellect and Combat Tactics skill.